With cropping decisions being made, now is a great time to carry out soil sampling to plan your fertiliser regime for the coming season.
Good yields may have results in greater nutrient offtake which will need to be replenished to ensure your subsequent crops can reach their full potential. By soil sampling now you can also gauge whether there is a requirement for an autumn application of fertiliser.
The 2021/22 AHDB Recommended List sees several high-yielding varieties introduced in the wheat and barley groups. For maximum potential yield to be achieved, crops need to be provided with the correct balance of essential nutrients throughout the growing season.
Many grassland farmers with a high stocking rate and significant feed inputs have moved away from using fertilisers containing P (Phosphate). But it’s important to know that even a maintenance application of P to keep soil indexes at target 2 can have an impact on grass yields.
With yields on cereal crops widely being reported across the industry as much as 1 tonne higher per acre, (2.5 tonne per hectare) than last year, and grass yields certainly outstripping 2018, grain stores and silage clamps are looking fuller going into the winter this year.
We are facing unprecedented times, and farming along with other industries are having to ensure their businesses are as well positioned as they can be to manage the impact our withdrawal from the EU in whatever form that might be, will have.
The engine room and lifeblood of any farm is the soil, an element that has the potential to impact greatly on farm profitability. Knowing the fertility of your soils is key in determining the most efficient and cost-effective choices that should be made when using both fertilisers and manures.
Wynnstay have launched a new range of fertilisers within the established TopCrop brand. PotashPlus offers an ideal combination of four nutrients in one single fertiliser.
Grass is the cheapest feed available on farm and, if managed correctly, it offers significant potential to reduce the cost of production. However, crops can be extremely variable in terms of quality and quantity, so targeted investment into aftercut nutrition is key to realise the potential of the leys.
Understanding the fertility of your soil is an essential part of grassland management. There needs to be an awareness of the nutritional picture of each field, to ensure there is the right balance of nutrients to allow the ley to fulfil its potential. A blanket approach to fertiliser purchasing is often not the most cost-effective approach, as each field needs to be assessed individually.
Modern grass varieties and high quality mixtures have the potential to deliver superior yields and excellent feed values, but often grassland management and basic nutrition is overlooked, and new leys fail to deliver their full value.
Reseeding an existing ley can lead to a significant return on investment. Within several years ‘weed grasses’ will ingress into a sward – particularly if the field has experienced poaching or after a hard winter. These ‘weed grasses’ have poor quality characteristics compared to ryegrass varieties from the Recommended List. These include poor digestibility and a poorer response to fertiliser, as well as not converting to meat and milk as efficiently as ryegrass.
